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Lola Ridge (1873-1941) was an Irish born American poet who wrote about the immigrant communities in early 20th century America. She wrote both as an outsider (writing about other ethnicities) and as one who shared the experience of being displaced and shifted. This poem is from The Ghetto and Other Poems, published around 1920.

THE FIDDLER

In a little Hungarian cafe
Men and women are drinking
Yellow wine in tall goblets.

Through the milky haze of the smoke,
The fiddler, under-sized, blond,
Leans to his violin
As to the breast of a woman.
Red hair kindles to fire
On the black of his coat-sleeve,
Where his white thin hand
Trembles and dives,
Like a sliver of moonlight,
When wind has broken the water.

— Lola Ridge

Amazing. She describes a medicine wheel, a holistic rendering in a tiny picture of passion. Yellow wine, red hair, black sleeve, white hand. Men and women drinking together. This fiddler working for all his worth, scraping out gypsy music, melodies and rhythms that tremble and dive like his hand, like the surface of a lake at night, the unity of human creation and nature, both emerging out of motion, the bow across the strings, the wind on the water.

Beauty arises out of subtle motion, scattering notes and light everywhere.